Increased demand for hospital care and other factors are stretching Quinte Health Care’s budget, with an early report predicting the possibility of a year-end deficit.

Treasurer David MacKinnon was unavailable for comment this week, but in a new report to QHC’s board, he reported a surplus of $122,000 as of July 31, four months into the fiscal year.

“We are currently forecasting a year-end deficit of $1.4 million,” he wrote.

MacKinnon noted the projection was based on early data “so this forecast is very preliminary.”

This year’s budget was first expected to balance revenue and costs at $182 million.

The corporation’s last fiscal year, which had a budget of $177 million, ended with a $1.04-million surplus, thanks in part to new provincial funding. At the time, MacKinnon called it “a reprieve rather than a deliverance.”

As reported Tuesday, hospitals across Ontario are facing a prolonged increase in patient traffic, and that’s affecting their bottom lines.

The regional intensive care unit in Belleville, for example, showed an increase during the period of 16 per cent, while the emergency department in Trenton saw nine per cent more visits.

While there has been some extra funding from Ontario’s Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, the surge of patients, benefits, the need to replace expired influenza vaccine, and other factors continue to create problems.

• Tracking performance: The board also heard details of QHC’s first-quarter performance on what’s know as the scorecard: a list of goals monitored throughout the year.

President and chief executive officer Mary Clare Egberts said three of eight wait-time goals weren’t met.

The wait for magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, was extended by this year’s shutdown for a major upgrade of the imaging machine. Egberts said staff are still studying why the waits for cancer surgery and computerized tomography (CT scans) did not meet the target.

Wait-time performance in several cases fell short by less than one per cent of the targets.

While good performance in staff safety was recorded, “there was an increase in staff safety incidents over the summer,” Egberts reported. Further detail will be reviewed in November by a board committee.

The percentage of uncovered shifts rose slightly during the first quarter. No numbers were immediately available.

“Although recruitment of qualified, experienced RNs (registered nurses) remains a concern, there has been significant work” by staff in the last six months to try to minimize problems.

The last two schedules posted in this quarter have, as a result, met the goal of having less than 1.8 of shifts left unfilled, Egberts said.

“We had a very high rate of charts that were kind of incomplete,” he said. That peaked in November 2016, when there were 1,379 incomplete charges.

“It’s not to say there’s no record available,” Zoutman said, explaining the records were unfinished, not missing. After efforts to improve the situation, completion this year has increased by 75 per cent.

About 70 per cent of chart problems appeared to occur during the patient discharge process, he said, and more focus on it is needed.

• Next meeting: The QHC board’s next meeting is Tuesday, Nov. 28 at the Prince Edward Community Centre at the Picton fairgrounds. The start time has not been set but will be posted at www.qhc.on.ca prior to the meeting.